Carver Cemetery After School Outreach
In the afternoon on September 23, TSPS Chapter 5 members Marcos Madrid, Chris Freeman, and Annalicia Madrid came to the Inspire Vision Compassion Center in southeast Dallas to meet with a group of neighborhood school children in their after-school program at the local community resource center. Chris was contacted by TSPS Chapter 5 friend Julie Fineman about the opportunity.
Julie, organizer of The Constellation of Living Memorials, first engaged Chapter 5 several years ago for survey work initially at the Warren Ferris Cemetery in the Forest Hills neighborhood near the Dallas Arboretum. At that time, Lina T. Ramey & Associates, PJB Surveying, and DAS Geospatial combined forces to perform boundary and topographic surveys and added a UAV fly-thru video of the historic cemetery. That led to additional donated survey work by LTRA, PJB, and Smart Drone at several other Dallas historical cemeteries, including Carver Cemetery, Grover Cemetery, Santo de Cemento Cemetery, Oakland Cemetery, Western Heights Cemetery, and Beeman Cemetery. Currently, Robert Young, President of TransTexas Surveying, is updating imagery and preparing an updated topographic map for the Western Heights Cemetery (where Clyde Barrow is buried).
Twenty-one graves have been located in the Abraham Carver Cemetery which covers one-half acre of land and contains six generations of Carver family members. The earliest marked grave is that of Abraham Carver (1806-1883), who came to Texas in 1844 with his brothers Solomon and Daniel. This family cemetery is located on a small portion of his original 320-acre land grant. Carver’s second wife, Elizabeth (d. 1885), and two of their children are also interred here. The last burial, that of Chris Carver (b. 1866), took place in 1946.
Marcos and Chris gave the group of 8-to 10-year-old students a quick introduction to who surveyors are, what they do, and how they contribute to society. They also stressed the importance of learning skills in school to prepare for careers. The students and their parents then went over to the Carver cemetery to use differential levels to determine the low area of the cemetery where a proposed rain garden is being prepared. One of the descendants, Abraham Carver, was also present. Students took turns reading the level rod and understanding that the higher the rod reading, the lower the ground elevation. As a bonus, Marcos demonstrated the more modern survey technology of a GPS receiver.
Chris and Marcos have also committed to a future opportunity scheduled at the Warren Ferris Historical Cemetery with a group of 4th and 5th-graders from Sanger Elementary, a Dallas ISD school located across the street from the cemetery. They will display typical instruments that Ferris would have used in his surveys of Dallas County in the 1850s, including a compass with Jacob’s staff and a Gunter’s chain.
These are great opportunities to share our profession and our connection to local history with elementary-age children while also exposing them to our profession.
Thanks again to Annalicia Madrid for attending and capturing all the action. And special thanks to Julie Fineman for continuing to offer Chapter 5 opportunities to share our profession with the community.
For further information related to the historical cemetery initiative, as well as information related to The Constellation of Living Memorials, see the links below:
